Lewerke as Heisman Candidate?
MSU QB Brian Lewerke getting some pre-season hype as a Heisman candidate:
MICHIGAN STATE QB BRIAN LEWERKE, JUNIOR Lewerke will begin his second season as the Spartans’ starting QB in a favorable position to build up Heisman momentum. Not only does Michigan State look set to mount a challenge to Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State in arguably the toughest division in the Power 5 leagues (the Big Ten East), it brings back its top three receivers and four starters on the offensive line from the group that rebounded from a dismal 2016 season to win 10 games last fall. Lewerke’s output as a runner and passer could keep him in the Heisman mix, provided the Spartans make good on their preseason expectations by staying in the playoff hunt.
https://www.si.com/college-football/2018/05/17/heisman-trophy-odds-slee…
I honestly don't see it.
Last year MSU was 8-0 when Lewerke threw 35 or fewer passes. MSU was 1-3 when Lewerke threw 36 or more passes.
A Heisman candidate needs to be able to put his team on his shoulders. Anytime Lewerke had to put MSU on his shoulders, they lost.
most teams will throw more when they're behind than when they're ahead.
All fbs players are heisman candidates before the season.
Lewerke is MSU's best QB after Cousins IMO
Scares me more than Connor Cook, Jeff Smoker, Brian Hoyer, etc....
That being said, I think he is in for a rough go this fall against this Michigan defense
Last year MSU was 8-0 when Lewerke threw 35 or fewer passes. MSU was 1-3 when Lewerke threw 36 or more passes.
MSU was throwing more in the games that they lost because they were getting blown out and were going to the air to try and make up ground. They lost to ND by 20 and OSU by 45. The idea of Lewerke as a Heisman candidate is ludicrous.
I mean the only way I could see him in the heisman conversation is if they win the division which I think they should be favored to do just that. However, if they lose a game or 2 or 3 it can’t be because of lewerke not able to drive them down the field or throwing a pick at a crucial point in the game. With that said he has no shot. I think we will upset MSU this season and I doubt he beats OSU. The rest of their schedule is manageable though
Ain't gonna happen.
have great hair tho. Shouldn't that count for something?
Your hand-picked statistic shows that he tends to throw more in games they are losing rather than them losing games in which he happens to throws more.
And defenses on consisently winning teams often give up passing yards because, you know, they're playing ahead in the score and their opponents throw more often. This isn't difficult but announcers and coaching cliches don't help.
MSU will move the ball against bad teams because Lewerke can bail them out with his running. Good defenses (like ours) won't give him the same room.
He got loose way too often in last year's game. I would have Devin Bush hounding that fucker as soon as he gets off the bus.
Using passing attempts is a weird way to determine if a QB is good or not. Of course he would have less attempts in games they win since they would be doing more clock control.
Is when the team needed Lewerke to help them out of a hole they dug themselves into, he didn't have the talent or drive to do so. Heisman winners are guys that step up when their team needs them and in the end, does enough for his team to win the game.
So, the metric should be QBR in the 4th quarter while down 14 points or less or something along those lines.
I was using it as a metric for putting the team on his shoulders.
2700+ yards passing. 500+ yards rushing. 20+ TDs. On a top 15 and 10 win team. He as a sophomore last year, so yeah, some Heisman hype is expected. He also played in a few terrible weather games or he would have thrown for 3000 yards.
He’s young. He can really throw well in the run and has a decent arm. His team returns everyone. No surprise he’s getting some hype.
Let them get all the pre-season hype... they have earned it. We will have something to say about that when we play them...
Not interested in playing a night game against them either.
While I don't think he was an elite QB last year, he did show potential and has the opportunity to improve going into his second year of starting. He should have a decent o-line ahead of him and a good RB. I'm not sold on their WRs, but they aren't terrible. If he has an improved year this year I would say there is the potential for 2019, but right now I would not consider him a candidate. I also don't expect MSU to win enough games to be a consideration. I'd predict they are 9-3, but time will tell. They don't have to play Wiscy in cross divisional and they don't have too difficult of a pre-conference schedule. So, they should have a pretty clear path to 8-9 wins, but doubt they get by OSU, UM, or PSU (in State College).
Kid is a baller. They have almost everyone returning. They will continue to evolve. Definitely worries about this game. Maybe more so than even OSU.
In a side note tho...he does run a lot. They will need to keep him healthy. If he gets hurt they may be fucked.
Important player on any team contending for the B1G this year. DeWeaver is gone and I was not very impressed by the RS Frosh Lombardi in what I saw of their Spring game. Lewerke “made a lot of chicken salad” out of what his OL and running game gave them last year.
LeWerke will win the Heisman. Book it,
The only times he passed for over 250 yards last year, he required over 50 attempts to do so. Even John O’Korn did better than that.
He completed 50% or fewer of his passes in four games last year.
Heisman candidate? Yeah....no.
Sure, we go undefeated and beat MSU by 24, maybe 24-0, and Brian LeWerke wins the Heisman. I wonder if Michigan can best MSU by something like 45-0 and LeWerke could still win the Heisman.
I really don't care unless Shea Patterson or any other Wolverine is also in New York in December.
Go BLUE
Wishing everyone a weekend that exceeds all positive expectations.
OK...
Don't post positive analysis about a rival. Even if you go on to disagree with it, you will garner a lot of downvotes.
Just trying to generate on topic discussion...
Oh ya this blog will destroy you if you state facts that show OSU or MSU in any positive light. If you don’t believe me start a thread that lists the top 5 coaches in the big ten and watch the chaos. I’m just glad football season is right around the corner and basketball right after that
Don't mind him getting this hype in the off-season. Hype MSU as much as possible so it's harder for them to play the victim (they'll still try)
This is reasonable. You'd have to peg him as the second best QB in the B1G behind McSorley.
MSU was 17th in Passing S&P last year. But they couldn't run the ball at all. Their OL was the flipside of Michigan - decent at pass blocking, horrendous at run blocking. With LJ Scott returning and the OL bringing back some experience (though I don't believe the data shows OL returning starters is a good predictor of success), there's a good chance the run game improves. If that happens there will be even more play action available.
Lewerke's a good QB with good receivers. A lot would need to go his way for this to happen, but this is true of any player. Based on what's been proven on the field, he has a better opportunity than Patterson. But I'm hoping Patterson is great.
I’m curious as to why you have to peg him as th second best QB in the B10?
Is better outside of McSorley? We hope Shea will be and the OSU kid looked to be damn good in his short stint vs. M but I don’t see anybody else in the B1G better than Lewerke.
If MSU goes 11-1 and Lewerke looks good he will get Heisman chatter - I doubt Scott will be impressive enough to be the guy and someone from a team with that record is bound to get the hype. (FYI - I don’t see 11-1 happening but if it did...)
Best case for M this year is that Shea lives up to his potential. That potential is basically Brian Lewerke with probably a better arm and maybe better mobility. (Which is why he was a 5-Star and Lewerke was a 3.5-4 star)
First off, everyone on this board has already said the OSU kid is better than Shea because of the second half of The Game last year, so that means he’s already better than Lewerke too.
But seriously, I don’t have to hope Shea will be better than Lewerke, he already is. He put up extremely similar numbers last year with a higher QB rating than Lewerke and he played in half the games.
Top 10 or 15 candidate, maybe. He’s deceptively mobile, has an accurate arm. The difficulties he faces are (1) does not play in an offense that is geared to put up large passing numbers and (2) a difficult schedule.
The disconnect is NOT that he is just not that good. He is.
It doesn't look that bad to me:
Utah St
@ Arizona St
@ Indiana
CMU
Northwestern
@ PSU
Michigan
Purdue
@ Maryland
OSU
@ Nebraska
Rutgers
They have a couple tough back to back games (@ PSU, Michigan and OSU, @ Nebraska) but the rest of the schedule doesn't look that difficult.
Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State (on the road), and at Nebraksa. As a kicker you got Arizona State on the road. Pac 12 road games not gimmes, as history suggests.
Lewerke is a decent QB that performs farily well in a system that somehow makes no-name players into pretty damn good receivers. They have perfected the back shoulder throw, which is tough to defend, even with the number 1 pass defense.
They just better pray they don't suffer injuries like we did last year.
FFS....
No.
No
F***ing
Way.
He's a good QB. Much better than anyone we had on our roster last season. But a Heisman candidate? For him to win college football would have to have an awfully down year.
Not better than Peters. If Peters plays the msu game, Michigan wins.
They all must notice that he is playing with a vim.
while Lewerke comes up big in games against UM, OSU and PSU, he'll be a Heisman candidate, maybe even a finalist in NY.
If MSU goes 8-4 with losses to UM and OSU and PSU, he won't, regardless of how well he plays.
It's hilarious that people are even talking about this. I didn't even know his name before I saw this post.
Shea for August Heisman. Book it. Once all that fall camp hype gets going, Shea's a gonna get him that August Heisman.
He’s not even gonna be the best QB in the B1G. McSorely (and possibly Patterson and the OSU guy) will have better stats and ply this year.
May not win the Heisman but he is going to be one of the top QBs in the country. We better be ready when we meet them in EL.